Imagine, for just a moment, that you're swimming a half-mile beside 650 other swimmers.

Flailing legs and arms crowd around you. Your lungs ache with a thirst for oxygen, muscles burn from the resistance of the opaque lake water. You pull your weary body to shore and tear off your goggles, only to start running in your wetsuit.

Your veins pump with adrenaline as you struggle to free your body from the neoprene suit.

Can you picture it?

In your athletic underwear, with a number now taped to your chest, you jump on a bicycle and pedal furiously for 12 miles. At the end, with your body screaming for rest, you abandon the bike and run another five.

Sound fun? Liz Wolf thinks so.

Athletic Federal Way residents like Wolf and her two daughters, Carina and Alyssa, along with their cousin Sara Yazdi, have been looking forward to this grueling day for months. They describe themselves by their adopted nickname, the "Tri-Chicks." This weekend, they'll rely on the endurance they've worked months to build as they dive in Steel Lake for the first leg of the Reebok Women's Triathlon.

Always into sports, Liz Wolf started doing mini-triathlons about five years ago after suffering from debilitating arthritis, later found to be caused by food allergies.

Faced with the prospect of a wheelchair, Wolf said, she began training in order to "focus on what was right with my body, rather than what was wrong."

With her contagious spirit for athleticism, Wolf soon recruited her daughters, cousins, co-workers and friends to join her.

"It's a great way to stay in shape over the summer," said Carina, 14, describing the rigorous training that has become a labor of love for these women.

"Everyday we do at least a part of race, swim or bike or run," Liz said.

Carina said that she and her sister and cousin play sports competitively during the school year, and they like having an incentive to stay focused. But it's not easy.

"The running is the worst," said Alyssa, 12, during a recent training as she rested on the sandy beach of Steel Lake on a warm late-August afternoon. Sara agreed, "The course is hilly in some spots and flat in others, but long either way."

Her older sister can handle the running, Alyssa said, but she shows a bit of reservation about diving headlong into the lake's cloudy water.

"The lake is so murky," said Carina, who admits that her least favorite part of the competition is the swimming.

"I only open my eyes to see where I'm going," Carina laughed, "and I don't look down!" Steel Lake is over two meters deep and the water temperature ranges from 64 to 71 degrees.

Liz, the experienced matriarch of the team, remained sanguine about the whole thing, although getting up at 4 a.m., as participants must be at the park at 6:45 a.m., isn't her cup of tea.

"We're not morning people," she groaned.

Aside from the thrill of competition and the satisfaction of completing a triathlon, Wolf's team draws on a deeper motivation to compete in the fundraising event.

For the race in 2004, they wore t-shirts that read, "For Connie Britt." The slogan honored a beloved teacher at their school that died of ovarian cancer three years ago.

"Last year, we finished the race, showered and went straight to church, telling everyone, 'Look what we just did!'"

"It was cool when all the cancer survivors, some still without hair, jumped into the water to start the swim," the teenagers agreed. "The biggest cheers were for the survivors, and the youngest ones."

Liz said that the participants ranged from kids to women in their late 60s, with all different body types and abilities.

While the team members can't decide which segments of the triathlon they would rather skip, all three of the teenagers agree that they love the end the best.

"You come into the home stretch and everyone is so nice, cheering, encouraging you on," said Carina, "and then you get that great feeling of crossing the finish."

The rewards include a finishers' medal and a chance to win a K2 bicycle. The Post-Race Party goes from 8:30 a.m. until noon, and family and friends of the racers are encouraged drop by to join the fun.

But Alyssa said her favorite part came after she crossed the finish line.

"And then there's all this free food!" she said.